The statute of limitations on the attempt to enforce unpaid credit cards varies from state to state, but one thing remains consistent—eventually a creditor cannot seek to remedy an unpaid credit card bill in state court. Statutes of limitations are often troublesome for debt collectors. A debt collector is defined as “any person who … regularly collects or attempts to collect, directly or indirectly, debts owed or due or asserted to be owed or due to another,” 15 U.S.C. Section 1692a (6). One such debt collector facing the implications of statutes of limitations is Midland Funding, whose business it is to buy debts. “Specifically, Midland purchases accounts with overdue unpaid balances and tries to collect those accounts,” in Johnson v. Midland Funding, 823 F. 3d 1334, 1336 (11th Cir. 2016).

In Johnson, plaintiff Aleida Johnson filed a Chapter 13 bankruptcy petition in March 2014. Midland filed a proof of claim in her case seeking $1,879.71. The date of the last transaction on Johnson’s account was listed as May 2003—10 years before Johnson filed bankruptcy. The applicable statute of limitations was six years. Johnson sued Midland under the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA). The FDCPA provides that “a debt collector may not use any false, deceptive, or misleading representation or means in connection with the collection of any debt,” 15 U.S.C. Section 1692e, including attempting to collect a debt that is not “expressly authorized by the agreement creating the debt or permitted by law.” Johnson asserted that the filing of a proof of claim for the time-barred debt violated the FDCPA as unfair, unconscionable, deceptive and misleading.

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